Steven T. Murray

Steven T. Murray (born October 7, 1943) is an American translator from Swedish, German, Danish, and Norwegian. He has worked under the pseudonyms Reg Keeland and McKinley Burnett when edited into UK English.[1] He translated the bestselling Millennium series by Stieg Larsson,[2] three crime novels and two African novels by Henning Mankell, three psychological suspense novels by Karin Alvtegen, and works by many other authors. In 2001 he won the Gold Dagger Award in the UK for his translation of Sidetracked by Henning Mankell.

Biography

Murray was born in Berkeley, California, and grew up in Oakland, Manila, Mexico City, and San Diego. He attended Stanford University on a General Motors National Scholarship and made his first trip to Europe in 1963 to study at Stanford-in-Germany in Beutelsbach near Stuttgart. He returned to Europe the next year with the Scandinavian Seminar to study at Krogerup Højskole in Humlebæk, Denmark, and later taught English conversation and American literature at Herning Højskole in Jutland. He received his BA in Creative Writing in 1972 from California State University, Hayward. His first paid published translations, two Norwegian science fiction stories by Jon Bing and Tor Åge Bringsværd in an anthology of European SF from DAW Books, appeared in 1976.

After seven years working in technical translation, editing, and foreign-language typography, Murray founded Fjord Press with Susan Doran and was editor-in-chief from 1981 to 2001 (Marin County, Berkeley and Seattle), publishing mainly Scandinavian and German fiction in translation as well as a few American and British titles. He now lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he and his wife Tiina Nunnally are both full-time freelance literary translators.

Selected translations

From Swedish:

From Danish:

From Norwegian:

  • A Wealth of Tradition: Jøtul, 1853–2003 by Dag Ove Skjold (from Norwegian) (2003)
  • Like Thunder: A Play by Niels Fredrik Dahl (from Norwegian) (produced 2001)
  • The Abduction by Mette Newth, with Tiina Nunnally (from Norwegian) (1989)

From German and Spanish:

  • Queens of Havana: The Amazing Adventures of Anacaona, Cuba’s Legendary All-Girl Dance Band by Alicia Castro with Ingrid Kummels, US edition (from German and Spanish) (2007)
  • Anacaona: The Amazing Adventures of Cuba’s First All-Girl Dance Band by Alicia Castro with Ingrid Kummels, UK edition (from German and Spanish) (2007)

From German:

  • The Philosopher's Kiss by Peter Prange (from German) (2011)
  • Bad Wolf by Nele Neuhaus (2014)

Awards

References

  1. ↑ Canfield, Kevin (Oct 30, 2011). "How do you say "Balls of Gold" in French?". Salon. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
  2. ↑ Mcgrath, Charles (May 23, 2010). "THE AFTER LIFE OF STIEG LARSSON". The New York Times. p. 24. Retrieved August 10, 2011.
  • Albuquerque Journal, January 4, 2004, "Pair Won't Get Lost in Translation"
  • Seattle Times, August 9, 2009, "'Dragon Tattoo' fans, meet Reg, who made your obsession possible"
  • BBC Radio 4 Programmes – Saturday Live, August 21, 2010, "Steven T Murray translated Stieg Larsson’s celebrated Millennium trilogy from Swedish into English"
  • Stanford Magazine, November/December 2010, "The Man Behind 'The Girl...'"
  • Publishers Weekly, November 22, 2010, "Why I Write (or Translate)"
  • Costco Connection, December 2010, "Millennium Men," pp. 33–34
  • New York Times Book Review, December 24, 2010, "Fiction Chronicle"
  • Euro Crime, January 9, 2011, "Euro Crime reviewers favourite reads of 2010"
  • The New Yorker, January 10, 2011, "Man of Mystery," pp. 70–74
  • Albuquerque Journal, February 20, 2011, "Found in Translation," pp. E1, E4

External links